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Nice thomas toy, fun sketcher.

The Thomas Megasketcher was given to our 3 year old son as a gift and it turned out to be a big hit. As a fan of Thomas, it was nice to have an interactive creative toy involving thomas the tank Engine.

The sketcher is in the familair Thomas colours of red and blue, with a yellow border round the screen. The screen itself has spaces for three blue wheels to be attached and they spin round, whilst an animated track runs along the bottom of the screen. This is a nice touch that gives a bit of life. This is accompanied by a short peice of Thomas music and a the tooting of a trains horn.

The sketcher has a carry handle and slots for the other attachments that can be used with the sketcher such as stampers and erasers. The stamps and erasers are shaped as Thomas and Percy with stamps that can place the Thomas number'1' or the Pecrcy number '6' on the picture along with a cloud to represent a puff of steam.

There are two stencils included, that have recesses and indentations that can befollowed to draw a picture of Thomas or Percy. These fit exactly into the screen and when traced, can be the base of a good picture.

It is similar to an etch a sketch, using what I assume is some sort of magnetism to create a non permanant picture on the screen.The screen can be wiped clean by using the slider to clear the picture. The slider is shaped like Harold, another character from the Thomas world.

Some of the bits can get mislaid, but because there is a slot for each of them, it is easy to see when they are missing. The animation of the train track and the spinning wheels is a little bit gimmicky and it would have been just as good a sketcher without this, but over all it is a nice toy and will provide many hours of fun.

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fun toy for kids

My little boy loves Thomas the Tank Engine; he has just turned five and still draws on the walls and settee. So all pens, pencils, crayons and paints are banned from the house in case my little budding interior designer gets a hold of one of them and draws all over the house again. Most children go usually stop drawing on the walls and settees when they reach the ago of two or three, but Josh still continues to do it despite the numerous amounts of other drawing related toys he has.

I caught him about to draw on the wall three weeks ago and asked him why he was always doing it and his reply was "Mummy you're supposed to draw on paper, there's loads of paper on the wall that's not been drawn on yet!" Kids say the funniest things at times. I tried my hardest to keep my laugh in and explain to him that drawing on the walls was a no-no; it was a bad thing to do. He must really like drawing and this is the reason he draws on the walls, so we buy him the Aquadraw mats and the Lumisketcher style toys, at least that way the walls are safe. A few months before Christmas I spotted a Thomas and Percy Motorised Megasketcher in Woolworths and bought it for him mainly because I knew he loved Thomas The Tank and I wanted my walls to remain intact.

How Does It Work?

Well as you can see from the picture at the top of the review the Megasketcher looks fairly similar to an Etch-A-Sketch except it is a different colour and has a few accessories added onto it. The Megasketcher is bright blue and red and is meant to symbolise the colours on Thomas The Tank Engine, on the top of it there is a small handle so as your child can carry it around easily. The Megasketcher has a large clear screen, which is used to draw on funnily enough. There is a special pen attached to the bottom of the screen with a piece of string which is used to draw onto the Megasketcher with. When you draw on the Megasketcher using the pen you only have to brush the pen across the clear screen very lightly in order to see the picture you are drawing ( the picture will be shown in a dark grey colour).

When your child has finished drawing a picture on the Megasketcher all they have to do is pull down Harold he Helicopter (white cloud with a picture of a helicopter inside it located on the right hand side of the Megasketcher) and the page will be cleared ready to be drawing on again instantly. The Megasketcher is filled with small magnetic particles which are drawn to the top of the screen when your child draws on it using the pen. This is because the nib of the pen is metallic and attracts the small magnetic particles towards it resulting in a dark grey colour been shown on the Megasketcher board.

Accessories

Included with the Thomas And Percy Motorised Megasketcher there were a few stencils which enables your child to draw pictures of Thomas the Tank Engine and Percy easily. I can't remember how many stencils there were because Josh has a few other Thomas The Tank toys which have stencils and they're all together in a box, but I think there were three of them included with the Megasketcher.

There was also the Pen which is attached to the bottom of the Megasketcher with a piece of yellow string so as your child doesn't loose it. The pen also has its own little slot on the bottom of the Megasketcher board so as they can place it safely inside it so as it doesn't get damaged when they're not playing with it.

There are also three stamps attached to the top of the Megasketcher, the stamps included are~A number one and a number 6, which are square shaped, these numbered stamps are used to stamp 1 or 6 onto the Megasketcher board.

There is also another stamp included which is a cloud, funnily enough the cloud stamps a small cloud onto the Megasketcher board.

3 blue wheels and two green wheels. The wheels can easily be placed into the slot above the train track, when they are placed here they rotate when the fat Controller button is pressed. The train track below the wheels also moves and this is to give your child the illusion of the train they have drawn is actually moving across the Megasketcher.

Additional Information

The Thomas And Percy Motorised Megasketcher needs to have two AA batteries inserted so as your child can benefit from all the features on the Megasketcher. The batteries power the moving wheels, tracks and the theme tune. The Thomas The Tank Theme tune is played when the Fat Controller button is pressed. The Fat controller button activates the theme tune, moving wheels and train tracks. So if there were no batteries inserted into the Megasketcher then none of these features would work; your child would only be able to draw on the Megasketcher.

My Opinion

My little one loves playing with his Thomas And Percy Motorised Megasketcher, it actually keeps him entertained. The Megasketcher is fairly sturdy and well built because Josh has dropped it down a flight of stairs and onto the patio and its still intact; apart from a few little scratches on the plastic casing but that's to be expected.

Josh has great fun playing with it, and quite a lot of the time he actually writes on the board rather than drawing on it. I have started learning him Maths sums on it because it saves wasting a lot of paper because the board can be erased when it's full.

I don't regret buying the Thomas And Percy Motorised Megasketcher because it somewhat stopped my son from drawing on everything with crayons and pens and it also proved to be a fun and educational toy for him to play with. I paid £20 for the Thomas And Percy Motorised Megasketcher from Woolworths a few months ago although I'm sure you will be able to get a cheaper one from other retailers.

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Product Details

Create Thomas or Percy using the special stencils provided, place their wheels in the special grooves, then press the Fat Controller button and listen out for Thomas or Percy's whistle as you hear the Thomas theme tune play. By pulling down Harold the Helicopter you can clear the screen and use another stencil or draw